The former Spark building in Auckland's western precinct. Zuru is moving in.
Fast-expanding global toy and tech business Zuru is taking over new headquarters in Auckland, moving 200 staff from Freemans Bay into the four-building campus vacated at the end of last year by telco NZX-listed Spark New Zealand.
Matt Ganley, Zuru global property development manager, said 4000sq m had been leased in the building between Victoria St and Hardinge St.
Naming rights to the building had also been purchased ahead of the move from Napier St next month.
This year, the business will add a further 50 staff at the newly-leased premises.
“Initially, 200 Zuru team members are moving into the offices but that will grow to 250 this year as our Zuru Edge brands continue to launch and scale globally,” Ganley said.
“We are super excited to be making 167 Victoria St West Zuru’s new home in Auckland from mid-February.”
Other tenants moving in this month will include self-styled “challenger business telco” Cello, according to its chief executive Mark Jurgeleit.
Wellington-based Cello, which manages several ground stations for Elon Musk’s Starlink at Hinds near Ashburton as well as at Clevedon, Te Kuiti and Woodville, has about 130 staff in total.
”Cello will be moving in approximately 30 staff, but have taken space to accommodate medium-term growth to 60 in Auckland as our key market for corporate networking,” Jurgeleit said.
Last June, the Zuru owners were named the country’s wealthiest people, knocking packaging, property and investment magnate Graeme Hart off the spot he held for more than 20 years.
The Mowbray family, who started the company in their Cambridge garage, topped NBR’s 2024 Rich List.
Zuru is wholly owned by brothers Mat and Nick Mowbray, who the NBR has estimated are worth $20 billion.
Ganley today said Zuru had several new offices planned to open in other cities around the world this year.
“Our Auckland site joins several other new office openings planned by Zuru this year, including in London, Paris, Warsaw, Madrid, Toronto, Minneapolis, Mexico City, Copenhagen and our third building in Los Angeles.
“Like all our global offices, we are proud this has been designed by our Zuru architectural design studio in Los Angeles with all furniture and key fittings being produced and delivered by our Zuru housing tech team in China.”
Zuru Group was started more than 20 years ago and now spans three divisions - toys, consumer goods and construction - with more than 5000 staff across more than 30 locations worldwide.
Nick Mowbray, 39, last year said Zuru was on track to hit $3b annual revenue, with a plan to grow to $10b of annual turnover within the next five years.
Late last year, Spark left Victoria St for newly-built $650m headquarters at 50 Albert St.
All staff working for Spark left its headquarters at 167 Victoria St West as well as a Mayoral Drive building.
Spark is now in its new national headquarters between Albert St, Wyndham St, Mills Lane and Swanson St.
Anne Gibson has been the Herald’s property editor for 24 years, written books and covered property extensively here and overseas.